Last Week of Full Time Work

Over five months ago, I published a post entitled So Long,Full Time Employment. I’ve been looking forward to a lighter schedule ever since, and I’m happy to know that this week will be my last as a full time employee for the forseeable future.*

The time passed quickly. The summer was hectic as usual. Being a Dad, keeping up with this site, and managing a busy clinical schedule didn’t leave me with a lot of time to count down the days. But I’m glad they are mostly behind me.

Starting in October, I’ll be working a lot less. I’ve got plans for my newfound freetime this fall. I’ll be attending the ASA annual meeting in Boston in October followed immediately by the FinCon conference in Dallas.

In November, our family departs on a three week Spanish immersion adventure. In December, I’ll be free to celebrate both Christmas and New Years without working a single day in between for probably the first time since I was 15.

It’s high time I take advantage of my financial independence status. What would you do with financial independence?

Have a great week!

-Physician on FIRE

*I may return to full time for a spell to cover a potential military obligation of a partner, but that won’t happen for at least a year.

For me that was probably the point when the whole FI/RE thing shifted from a numbers based theoretical exercise into a tangible lifestyle choice that granted me loads more time to devote to whatever I wanted.

It was heartening to see the plan in action, demonstrably proving my approach and numbers.

Stopping work altogether was nice too when it happened, but the impact of the mind shift was not as big.

Enjoy all that time, it is the currency that wealth is truly measured in!

Congrats on becoming another part-timer! I think you will enjoy the additional sleep and lack of beeper noise. You might also find that doing mundane things like renewing your drivers license will be less irritating since you will have more week days off.

Thanks for the mention and more importantly congrats on scaling back from work. That has to be a wonderful feeling and it sounds like you are going to really enjoy your time!!! Can’t wait to read how it goes.

This is so romantic! It sounds like something that would happen in a movie! I’m so glad you will get to have some time off during Christmas and New Year’s. I can’t believe you’ve been working every single day since you were 15! You’re so hard-working. It’s time to let FIRE kick in and do its job! 😀

Well, it did take me another year and a half to make it official with a ring and more sober proposal, and another year and a half to tie the knot, but it is a true story.

Oh, and I definitely haven’t worked every day — not even close. But I don’t know that I’ve been off work completely from before Christmas until after New Years at any point in the last 25 years. I usually work one holiday or the other and if not, the days in between.

It’s awesome that you will be getting out of the full-time work mode soon! We just finished our first trip since I retired. It was amazing. We enjoyed every minute and I realized at the end that I wasn’t having the anxiety or “blues” that come with going back to work after vacation! Looking forward to meeting you in Dallas!

Three weeks in Spanish immersion sounds like a blast. We visited friends for a month in England this past summer and the kids loved it. As a kid, I remember having friends who would go abroad for the summer (summering in XYZ) and being slightly jealous, only now realizing it’s just about resource allocation. If you pay a ton for your car, don’t expect trips like that!

Bye bye full time work, I can’t believe it is already here. Good for you! Can’t wait to hear about your adventures now that you will have so much more time. See you at FinCon (Newbie here, its my first time going, but I am really looking forward to it).

Congratulations on taking advantage of your financial independence to cut back from full time work. It is a great feeling. When I cut back to part time, almost four years ago now, I enjoyed so much more free time and doing other fun things.

Now that I have repurposed my career to a much less stressful job, writing, speaking and coaching, I get a lot more sleep. I leave today on a 6 week journey across the country in my Motorhome. We will be taking historic route 66 during the journey. If anyone wants to follow along on the journey, I will be posting it on my Facebook Author Page. Go like my page and you can see what life is like after clinical medicine.

Route 66 was on my bucket list. Since I repurposed, my bucket list has begun a process of dwindling. Before, when I worked in clinical medicine, I was tied to being close to the hospital. Now I’m tied to being close to a cell tower. Not a particular cell tower, but any cell tower in the world. That opens up so many possibilities.

Best of luck on your new journey. Looking forward to meeting you at FINCON17, which just happens to fall on my motorhome path. Funny how that works.

I’ll bet you’re crossing items off that bucket list at a much faster pace with your newfound freedom, Dr. Fawcett. How fantastic that your chosen route happens to bring you to Dallas in October. See you there! -PoF

Thanks, Triple D. We’re planning another 3-week family trip in February, which will include either a week of medical volunteerism or a week of a medical conference. I’m not sure which one will work out, but both options will be someplace warm.

Thanks for the link love, friend! I’ll be publishing my story about riding mountain bikes with you on Thursday! Anyone who loves what the @POF has to say, stop over to Wealth Well Done on Thursday to check our behind the scenes adventure on Thursday!

Cool, and I look forward to hearing more about your spanish immersion trip. Speaking spanish was a hobby of mine with all my latino friends in the clink. Surprisingly, my Spanish is still pretty good. I’m not perfectly fluent with the nuance of the language, and I struggle hearing it perfectly, but I can communicate just about anything concept I need to with the Spanish I know. If your kids pick it up, I’d be happy to Speak Spanish with them so they can practice when I stop by.

Welcome to the ranks! In my pain practice I would ask some of my patients “how long did it take” The answer was “about 6 months” For me it was like taking an off ramp. Decelerating and no longer part of the high energy hustle. My early goal was to not be able to remember what the day was. My week was geared first around call then around weekend all driven by the concept of “work week”, “work day” etc. Now a nod is as good as a wink to a dead horse, my days are indifferent, blessedly indifferent, so my attention is on what I am attending to and not on the time associated. It’s very Zen and very integrating.

Early retirement is about understanding the moving parts, but then your blog is all about understanding the moving parts. After that life is a Gas, so go Gasem!